375. Expert Interview: How To Do More of What You Do Best
Michelle McQuaid
Michelle McQuaid is a best-selling author, workplace well-being teacher and playful change activator. With more than a decade of senior leadership experience in large organizations around the world, she’s passionate about translating cutting-edge research from positive psychology and neuroscience into practical strategies for health, happiness, and business success. An honorary fellow at Melbourne University’s Graduate School of Education, she blogs for Psychology Today, Huffington Post and Live Happy and her work has been featured in Forbes, the Harvard Business Review, the Wall Street Journal, Boss Magazine, The Age and more.
How to Do More of What You Do Best
Most of us don’t feel like we have a chance to do what we do best each day at work. Many of us have had to struggle to truly feel engaged in the jobs that we have. Often, when we’re in that state, we feel helpless, overwhelmed and despairing at times. But recent research has shown that even ten minutes a day of using your character strengths a bit more in your job can impact your well-being, sense of confidence, and performance. No matter what your job description says, you generally have some choice in how you go about your job.”
Why Is This Important?
“The first challenge is figuring out what our strengths are, because we often don’t know them. One reasons for this is that our strengths often come so easily to us that we take them for granted. We think, ‘Everybody can do that, there’s nothing special about it!’ We often don’t realize that, actually, there is something special in it. We can also look at the small changes we can make in a current job without having to leave it. Some of those changes might even be made without needing your boss’s permission. These changes can help you to begin doing more of what you do best each day.”
What Are the Key Lessons Learned Here?
“The first challenge is figuring out what our strengths are, because we often don’t know them. Begin by using a free online tool like VIACharacter.org. In about ten minutes, you’ll receive a listing, in order, of 24 of your unique character strengths. A growing body of evidence shows that having a chance to use our strengths, to do the things we’re good at and actually enjoy doing in our jobs, has important, positive outcomes for our personal well-being and performance. It doesn’t even have to be all day; it could just be part of the day. It has positive outcomes in terms of our teams and our organization’s bottom-line as well.”
Connecting With Michelle McQuaid
Website: michellemcquaid.com
Twitter: @chellemcquaid
Facebook: facebook.com/chellemcquaid
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/chellemcquaid
